The determinants of world wheat trade, 1963-2010: A gravity equation approach

Abstract

Tnificant trade he international has transformations increased configuration fivefold, over new the of exporting past the world fifty leaders years.The wheat have trade volume appeared has undergone of total and a wheat large sigimport market has emerged in less developed countries.The aim of this paper is to identify the main drivers of those changing patterns. For that purpose, we estimated a gravity equation based on data for bilateral trade flows. Information on the wheat trade was obtained from the UN-COMTRADE database (2014).We also accessed other sources to include explanatory variables such as gross domestic product (GDP) of the exporting and importing countries, GDP per capita, wheat production, different measures of cultural distance and proximity, current trade agreements, etc.The results are discussed and interpreted using a cliometric approach.